Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy joined fellow GOP lawmaker Rep. Brian Harrison in calling for Texas A&M University to end an available minor degree in LGBTQ+ studies Thursday, the Daily Caller has learned.
State lawmakers are beginning to push back against the publicly funded Lone Star state school after finding that the university is now offering a minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies in which students “examine the ways gender and sexuality are socially constructed.” The school site describes the available study as a way to “develop critical thinking, writing, and analytical skills” while exploring issues like “homophobia and transphobia’s relationship to forms of power (colonialism, sexism, ableism, classism, etc.).” (RELATED: Texas School District Lobbies Against School Choice Despite Parents’ Overwhelming Support)
“You’ll critically analyze how sexuality and sexual orientation shape gender roles, identities, and social statuses in societies,” the school site says. “Through these courses, you’ll develop an intricate and nuanced understanding of LGBTQ+ lived experiences, histories and social movements.”
Roy and Harrison slammed the new program. Roy told the Daily Caller that Texas A&M and higher educational institutes in general need to be “held accountable” for their advancement of “radical woke policies.”
“It’s time for Higher Education Institutions – including Texas A&M – to be held accountable for advancing radical woke policies – both in the Texas Legislature and Congress. Enough,” Roy told the Daily Caller.
Harrison, who is a graduate of the university, notably discovered the LGBTQ+ minor availability in late January, posting to X (formerly known as Twitter) that he would be “demanding answers” from the school on why they believe his constituents “should be forced to subsidize” the undergraduate minor.
“Texas A&M has been considered one of the most conservative major public institutions of higher education in all of America,” Harrison told the Daily Caller. “If Texas A&M is going this far off the rails then I think this speaks volumes of the state of [publicly] funded higher education in the country.”
“I had a lengthy discussion with the Provost of Texas A&M Alan Sams,” Harrison continued. “I communicated to him that as an Aggie, lawmaker in the state of Texas, taxpayer and someone with a fiduciary duty to make sure that tax money is only spent on a) things that are of value to the state of Texas and b) thing that are lawfully authorized and appropriated. I asked them to discontinue this minor or provide to me in writing a justification for this minor to be continued. The most charitable way to characterize the response is as a ‘non-response.”
“Disappointing is too diplomatic about it. I’m furious. I’m outraged by this,” Harrison added. “The purpose of taxpayer funded higher education in Texas is to train the workforce of tomorrow and to strengthen the economy of the state of Texas. If you want to go learn about transgenderism in, fine, but do it with your own damn money.”
“The provost confirmed to me that the authority to do something like this would have had to come from the senior ranks of [Texas A&M]. The regents are the people who are ultimately responsible for everything that happens at that university. I hope the regents look into this and take corrective action immediately,” Harrison said.
Harrison additionally called out the “abject failure” of the Texas House legislature and noted that he would be working on a text solution for the issue.
“This is further evidence of the abject failure of the Texas House to reign in rogue and woke educational bureaucrats in the state of Texas. I’ll be working on legislative solutions but we aren’t in session for another year. This should be stopped today,” Harrison said. “I wish I could tell you the number of people who come into my office or call or email in tears because they can’t afford their property taxes. I have constituents that are being taxed out of their homes. The last thing they should be having their money spent on is the liberal woke indoctrination of the next generation. They use the state resource – The Texas A&M website is a state resource. They use state resources and assert [that “transphobia” has a “relationship to racism, colonialism, sexism, ableism, classism,”] as fact.”
Sams, according to the school site, has been a faculty member and administrator for the Lone Star state university for 30 years by “teaching students, conducting research and helping faculty.” In addition to Sams, the school is currently led by interim President Mark Welsh, who has previously been an advocate of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in 2016, according to Texas Scorecard.
While Welsh had previously been the dean of the university’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, the interim president had also served as a four-star general in the U.S. Air Force and later become an Obama appointee to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the site reported. During his time as dean, however, Welsh gave a speech at the school on diversity, advising students to “interview everybody with an open mind, and in my view, ties to go to diversity.”
“There’s a risk in that, a personal risk you’ll have to accept, but I encourage you to accept that,” Welsh stated. “I’ve never regretted it for a second.”
Harrison told the Daily Caller that Texas A&M justified their additions by claiming the curricular changes are “driven by faculty and follow a standard administrative process.” The university maintained, according to Harrison, that “no faculty” have requested a change and there is “currently not a state process” for minor degree programs akin to that to which majors are subjected.
“In alignment with academic freedom, curricular changes are driven by faculty and follow a standard administrative process. To date, no faculty member has requested such a change regarding this minor. Per Texas A&M University Standard Administrative Procedure, the closure of a degree, minor, or certificate program must go through the Full Review Process,” the school justified, according to Harrison.
“While the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has a process to review majors for low degree production and their potential consolidation and closure, there is currently not a state process to similarly review minors. Texas A&M University is going above state requirements and developing a process to include the University’s 156 minors in a similar review. This minor will be part of that review process.”
